Gold Coast skipper Gary Ablett is tackled by Jack Ziebell of the Kangaroos during the round seven match on Sunday.

Gold Coast skipper Gary Ablett is tackled by Jack Ziebell of the Kangaroos during the round seven match on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images



GOLD COAST 7.4 10.5 13.10 18.12 (120) NORTH MELBOURNE 1.4 7.6 10.10 11.11 (77)

Goals: Gold Coast: G Ablett 4 B Matera 3 C Dixon 3 H Bennell 2 T Lynch 2 A Hall D Prestia M Rischitelli S Day. North Melbourne: M Daw 2 A Black A Mullett B Harvey B McKenzie D Petrie L Greenwood L Thomas R Bastinac S Gibson.

BEST Gold Coast: Prestia, Lynch, Matera, Ablett, Bennell, Swallow, Kolodjashnij, Dixon, Harbrow, O’Meara. North Melbourne: Hansen, Cunnington, Ziebell, Gibson.

Umpires: Jeff Dalgleish, Robert Findlay, Tristan Burgess.

Official Crowd: 19,819 at Etihad Stadium.


North Melbourne was getting the ball, holding onto it, using it well and kicking some goals. In almost every imaginable way it was back in the game, but by the half-time siren it was still three goals down. For all its work, there was so much more to do.


That this was the case says plenty about just how devastating Gold Coast’s first quarter was. Quick, proactive, energetic. Six goals in a row, room to run, almost every opportunity taken and what seemed an absolute understanding of what they, and each other, were capable of doing.


When Aaron Hall placed a long kick into the open forward line, it almost didn’t seem to matter who would be there to run onto it. He knew that whoever it was was more likely than not to win the race. As it happened, it was Harley Bennell, who reached the goal square long before anyone else.